The invention relates to the fields of cell separation and fluidic devices.
Clinically or environmentally relevant information may often be present in a sample, but in quantities too low to detect. Thus, various enrichment or amplification methods are often employed in order to increase the detectability of such information.
For cells, different flow cytometry and cell sorting methods are available, but these techniques typically employ large and expensive pieces of equipment, which require large volumes of sample and skilled operators. These cytometers and sorters use methods like electrostatic deflection, centrifugation, fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), and magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS) to achieve cell separation. These methods often suffer from the inability to enrich a sample sufficiently to allow analysis of rare components of the sample. Furthermore, such techniques may result in unacceptable losses of such rare components, e.g., through inefficient separation or degradation of the components.
Thus, there is a need for new devices and methods for enriching samples.